Skip to main content

Past Lunch Bunch Seminars

Spring 2016

Date Speaker Lab/Host Topic
Jan 15 Allen Hurlbert Ecology Faculty Candidate Overview
Jan 22 Snow day!
Jan 29 Susan Lyons Sockman lab Selective modulation of song performance is dependent on competitive context in male Lincoln’s sparrows (Melospiza lincolnii)
Feb 5 Kate Augustine Kingsolver lab Geographic variation in the responses of insect herbivores to diet quality and temperature
Feb 12 Spencer Ingley K. Pfennig lab Repeated trait evolution driven by divergent natural selection at early and late stages of speciation
Feb 19 Elizabeth Moore Kingsolver lab Effects of temperature and development time on the wing phenotype of a seasonal polymorphic butterfly (Melanitis leda).
Feb 26 EEOB Grad students Grad recruitment Lightning talks
Mar 4 Seth Barribeau K. Pfennig host Specificity, memory, and immune system evolution across a social gradient
Mar 11 Amanda Pierce  K. Pfennig lab The effect of behavior on population genetics and genomics
Mar 18 Spring Break
Mar 25 Holiday
April 1 Laura Miller From spike trains to force generation: A mathematical model.
April 8

(in GSB 1377)

 Nick Levis D. Pfennig lab Plasticity-first evolution in nature: Was Futuyma wrong?
April 15 Derick Poindexter Weakley lab Unraveling relationships in Carex sect. Acrocystis (Cyperaceae) using a combined evidence approach
April 22 Paul Durst D. Pfennig lab Gene regulatory mechanisms underlying phenotypic plasticity: genome-wide DNA methylation in natural populations
April 29 Peter White What is theory in ecology?  What is a theory of disturbance/pulse dynamics?  A work in progress

Fall 2015

Date Speaker Lab/Host Topic
Aug 28 EEOB Meet and Greet
Sept 3 (THURS 3:00pm GSB 1377) Lauren O’Connell Burmeister lab Dressed to Kill: Behavior and Toxicity of the Little Devil frog
Sept 11 Christopher Strickland Miller lab Modeling Savanna Water Resource Dynamics with Stochastic Daily Rainfall
Sept 18 Bradley Allf and David Pfennig D. Pfennig lab The evolution of the rattlesnake rattle: a tale of snake tails
Sept 25 Allen Hurlbert Caterpillars Count! Building a geographic database of avian resource availability and resource phenology through citizen science
Oct 2 Olivier Cotto Servedio lab Evolution of incomplete reproductive isolation with gene flow
Oct 9 Aaron Comeault Matute lab Using experiments to test evolutionary hypotheses in the post-genomic era
Oct 16 Fall Break
Oct 23 Alissa Brown Plant Ecology Lab Do soil biota influence spatial patterns of tree seedling recruitment in temperate forests
Oct 30 Meaghan Pimsler C. Jones Lab TBA
Nov 6 Yuxiang Liu Burmeister lab Parallel evolution of gene molecular mechanisms underlying evolution of hippocampal function
Nov 13 Kayla Peck Burch lab Biochemical determinants and evolutionary mechanisms of MERS-Coronavirus host range expansion
Nov 20(in Coker 119!) Gina Calabrese K. Pfennig lab Evolutionary origins of adaptive mating preferences
Nov 27 Thanksgiving
Dec 4 Sofia de la Serna Buzon K. Pfennig lab Impact of a variable environment on female reproduction

Spring 2015

Date Speaker Lab/Host Topic
Jan 23  Bob Peet Big data meets Darwin’s ‘entangled bank’ – Insights and opportunities provided by the BIEN and sPlot international initiatives.
Jan 30 Chris Akcali D. Pfennig lab Rapid Evolution of Mimicry Following Local Model Extinction
Feb 6 David Pfennig and Joel Kingsolver Discussion on Nature commentary: Does Evolutionary Theory Need a Rethink?
Feb 13 Kate Augustine Kingsolver lab The role of larval food quality in the geographic divergence of life history traits in Pieris butterflies​​
Feb 20 Fletcher Halliday,      Rob Heckman,          Peter Wilfahrt Mitchell and White labs Plant diversity, soil resources, and fungal pathogens in an experimental old field study
Feb 27 Snow day!
March 6 Yuxiang Liu Burmeister lab Spatial cognition of a poison frog: map-like spatial ability of place learning in Morris water maze
March 13 Spring Break
March 20 Grad student recruitment Lightning talks by Julia Samson, Jes Coyle, Lisa Bono, Roger Brothers, and Chris Akcali
March 23(1:00 pm,Wilson 128) Julia Olszewski Kier lab Obliquely striated muscle is not just for super elongation
March 27 Lisa Bono Burch lab Competition and the evolution of novel resource use: an experimental test in a virus
April 3 Holiday
April 10 Rob Heckman Mitchell lab Factors influencing disease and herbivory in deciduous shrubs
April 17 Susan Lyons Sockman lab The past and current social environment influences singing behavior in the Lincoln’s sparrow (Melospiza lincolnii)
April 24 Audrey Kelly K. Pfennig lab A genomic perspective of hybridization in Spadefoot toads

Fall 2014

Date Speaker Lab/Host Topic
Aug 22 EEOB Meet and Greet
Aug 29 Pat Ciccotto Servedio lab guest Female color preferences, ecological selection, and the evolution of male coloration in darters (Percidae: Etheostomatinae).
Sept 5 Emily Schmidt K. Pfennig lab Behavioral syndromes in the house cricket.
Sept 12 Frank Smith Goldstein lab The tardigrade Hypsibius dujardini and body plan evolution within Panarthropoda
Sept 19 Rachael Steward Kingsolver lab guest Egg-laying behavior of Pieris macdunnoughii butterflies exposed to native and invasive mustards
Sept 26 Joel Kingsolver and Allen Hurlbert Discussing DeExtinction: Crazy, or not so crazy?
Oct 3 Julia Samson and Alex Hoover Miller lab Water flow and group dynamics in the upside-down jellyfish Cassiopea sp.: from experiment to model
Oct 10 Jessica Higgins Kingsolver lab Rapid Evolution and Population Divergence in Response to Environmental Change in Colias butterflies
Oct 17 Fall break
Oct 24 Thiago Lima Willett lab Determination of genome-wide patterns of hybrid inviability using an allele frequency method
Oct 31 Paul Durst D. Pfennig lab Defining extreme: a new perspective on insular mammalian body size change
Nov 7 Jonathan Rader Hedrick lab Ovenbirds, Niches and Neutrons
or What stable isotopes can tell us about niche evolution
Nov 14 Nick Levis D. Pfennig lab Level of UV-B radiation influences the effects of glyphosate-based herbicide on the spotted salamander
Nov 21 Rob Aldredge Sockman lab Timing of embryonic development optimizes hatching and fledging success in an altricial passerine
Nov 28 Thanksgiving Break
Dec 5 Olivier Cotto Servedio lab Evolution of aging in heterogeneous environments

Spring 2014

Date Speaker Lab/Host Topic
Jan 17 Sarah Joseph Host: Maria Servedio HIV Host Range Expansion to Infect Macrophage:  How Intra-Host Ecology Shapes Where HIV Replicates
Jan 24 Thiago Lima & Ginnie Hench Willett lab & HHMI It’s NOT Rocket Science: Creating a Culture of Effective Communication & Outreach for Basic Research in the Life Sciences
Jan 31 Abel Valdiva Bruno lab Grouper still do not control invasive lionfish on Caribbean reefs
Feb 7 Joel Fodrie Host: Charles Mitchell Fishery production across estuarine seascapes: habitat availability, setting, and fragmentation regulate fish behaviors and assemblage structure
Feb 14 Snow day!  (no lunch bunch)
Feb 21 Jes Coyle Hurlbert lab Do lichen functional traits track canopy microclimates?
Feb 28 Graduate Recruitment Lightning talks
Mar 7 Ryan Shelton Hedrick lab The mechanics and behavior of Cliff Swallows during tandem flights
Mar 14 Spring break
Mar 21 Kayla Peck Burch lab Receptor evolution and host-range expansion in MERS-Coronavirus
Mar 24 (MONDAY) Jeff Conner Servedio lab host Mechanisms of adaptive evolution in a conserved trait
Mar 28 Rob Heckman Mitchell lab The role of enemies, light, and nutrients in invasion and colonization of old fields
April 4 (GSB 1377!!) Laura Miller Sockman lab Life at intermediate Reynolds numbers
April 11 No lunch bunch
April 18 Holiday
April 25 Susan Lyons Sockman lab Neurobiological and behavioral responses to the social environment in Lincoln’s sparrows (Melospiza lincolnii)

Fall 2013

Fridays Noon in Coker 215 (unless noted)

Date Speaker Lab/Host Topic
Aug 23 EEOB Meet and Greet!
Aug 30 Nick Battisa and Alex Hoover  Miller lab Computational tools for biomechanics with examples shown in movies
Sept 6 Jessica Higgins Kingsolver lab Larval thermal adaptations in Colias butterflies.
Sept 13 Rob Aldredge Sockman lab Timing of embryonic development influences offspring growth and survival in a songbird
Sept 20 Erin Mordecai Mitchell lab Competition and coinfection in barley and cereal yellow dwarf viruses
Sept 27 Thiago Lima Willett lab Higher levels of sex chromosome heteromorphism is associated with markedly stronger reproductive isolation
Oct 4 David Kikuchi D. Pfennig lab Thesis Defense: Mechanisms of adaptation in coral snake mimicry
Oct 11 Cancelled
Oct 18 Fall break
Oct 25 Jeremy Van Cleve NESCent postdoc & Servedio lab guest The evolution of bet-hedging and phenotypic plasticity: trade-offs and fitness asymmetries
Nov 1 Beth Shank Microbial chemical ecology: Living among unruly neighbors
Nov 8 Lisa Bono Burch lab TBA
Nov 15 Lindsey Carr Bruno lab Temperature effects on sea urchin grazing rates in the Galapagos Islands
Nov 22 Justin Yeh Servedio lab Can learning facilitate speciation?
Nov 29 Thanksgiving
Dec 6 Jessica Kurth Kier lab Bigger is not better: The effects of body size on burrowing mechanics and kinematics in the earthworm Lumbricus terrestris

Sprint 2013

Fridays Noon in Coker 215 (unless noted)

Date Speaker Lab/Host Topic
Jan 18 Mohamed Noor Duke University MOOC’in’ it up in and out of Duke: A Coursera experience
Jan 25 Ryan Shelton and Jeremy Greeter Hedrick lab  “High speed pursuit in barn and cliff swallows” and “How the Hawkmoth Manduca sexta Moves Left and Right”
Feb 1 No lunch bunch No lunch bunch
Feb 8 Joel Adamson Servedio lab  Sexual Selection
and Life-History Evolution with Age-Dependent Paternal Mutation
Feb 15 Beren Robinson NESCent and D. Pfennig lab guest Does resource competition favor adaptive plasticity, and if so, what really is the evidence?
Feb 22 Rob Heckman Mitchell Lab
March 1 Graduate recruitment  Graduate recruitment lightening talks
March 8 Thiago Lima, Kayla Peck, Jes Coyle, Artur Romanchuk, Joel Adamson and Nick Garcia Willett, Burch, Hurlbert, Jones, Servedio and Burmeister labs  Half-baked ideas symposium
March 15 Spring Break
March 22 Heidi MacLean (in GSB 1377) Buckley lab
March 29 Holiday
April 5 Susan Lyons and Kayla Peck Sockman and Burch labs “Receiver psychology affects female choice”  and “Mutation Rate Catastrophe in an RNA virus”
April12 Lauren Buckley  Why biology matters for forecasting ecological and evolutionary responses to climate change
April 15* (Monday!) Michael Kopp Aix-Marseille University – Servedio lab guest  Models of adaptive speciation
April 26 Courtney Fitzpatrick NESCent and Servedio lab  What do the Amboseli baboons reveal about sexual selection on female traits?
May 3  Mira Han  NESCent  Duplications deletions and rearrangements in genome evolution

Fall 2012

Fridays Noon in Coker 215 (unless noted)

Date Speaker Lab/Host Topic
Aug 24 Keith Sockman Song in the cold is ‘hot’: memory of and preference for sexual signals perceived under thermal challenge
Aug 31 Meet and Greet
Sept 7 Jessica Kurth Kier Lab Scaling of the hydrostatic skeleton in the Earthworm, Lumbricus terrestris
Sept 14 Joel Kingsolver Nescent working groups: Evolution of reaction norms, and maybe ecology of natural selection
Sept 21 Maria Servedio Evolution of displays within the pair bond
Sept 28 Abel Valdiva Bruno Lab Fishing effects on community structure and ecosystem function of coral reefs of the Carribean
Oct 5 Caitlin Stern Servedio Lab Cooperation and competition in kin associations
Oct 12 University Day
Oct 19 Fall Break
Oct 26 Rob Aldredge Sockman Lab The (neuro)endocrine mechanisms associated with clutch size and timing of breeding
Nov 2 Karl Fetter Weakley Lab Biogeography of the tulip poplar (Liriodendron tulipifera)
Nov 9 Alan Weakley
In Coker 119!		 New species, new views of biodiversity and biogeography, and new tools – “news” from the UNC Herbarium
Nov 16 Rachel Rodman Duke Teaching biology through Shakespeare
Nov 23 Thanksgiving
Nov 30 Dave Johnston
In FedEx 1005!		 Duke Marine lab New publishing/New pedagogies: How multimedia textbooks and mobile devices are changing the way we think about teaching in the classroom, laboratory and field
Dec 7 Sarah Seiter Kingsolver Lab Selection and Evolution of Life History in an Invasive Butterfly.

To email the listserve, send a message to lunchbunch@bio.unc.edu
Please contact Dr. Maria Servedio or Biology IT Support to join the listserv.

Quick Links:

Leave a Reply

You must be logged in to post a comment.